Jinjer 31: Books, Books, and More Books

[cascarones]

@singsingsing Bravo on the Austen ladies! I keep wanting there to be a Fanny and I'm sure there's one somewhere in Fundieland.

I don't know much about Kendra yet, but I get a bit of a Catherine Moorland vibe. 

I'm also one of the multiple library cards, but oddly enough not yet where we live. I've only been to the library once and it was to drop my ballot, WA state is mail in, but I thought they might have stickers. It was off putting, there was a man with a very large dog standing right at the post box on purpose. I'm afraid of large dogs I don't know and kept waiting for him to leave. A little elderly couple and their dog solved the problem, the lady had to be in her late 80s, picked up her tiny dog and threw a dog treat from her purse. She's my voting spirit animal.

In uni I had to take a literary seminar, so I took the science fiction one. It is probably the most memorable class from those 3 years.  Weird mix of personalities, classics and strange reads. I'd never touched anything like Riddley Walker. 

On a Duggar note: Jeremy named a butterfly Peter at the Laredo environmental center according to Jinger's insta.

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

I want to join the book club! Here we go.

Books I loved: 

The Scarlet Pimpernel

To Kill a Mockingbird

Pride and Prejudice

Free Air by Sinclair Lewis

The Storm of the Century by Al Roker

* I'm a huge history nerd, so hear me out. It's one of the most well-written narrative books about the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, which is still the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. That hurricane basically changed the way we view these storms forever. It's also very timely because the path of the 1900 Galveston hurricane was basically the exact same path Harvey took a few weeks ago. If you like history, you will LOVE it. I devoured it in one day.

Books I hated:

A Farewell to Arms

Love in the Time of Cholera

50 Shades of Gray.

* I finished that book and thought, "If I have to read 'inner goddess' one more time, I'm going to lose my shit."

 

[sawasdee]

We read  - and acted out - "Macbeth" at the age  of 8/9 at school. We were too young to know that Shakespeare was supposed to be boring, it's the shortest play, has witches, ghosts, murder and blood - and we loved it! I can remember us chanting "multitudinous seas incarnadine" in the playground because we loved how it sounded. I can still recite great chunks...and I love Shakespeare. We also read Midsummer's Night Dream and The Merchant of Venice before the age of 11.

When I finished "Heart of Darkness" at uni I rang my sister at 1am to tell her she must read it NOW!

[Hashtag Blessed]

1 hour ago, louisa05 said:

For all the Shakespeare haters, he wrote plays. They weren't meant to be read from a page. Too many teachers don't let students interact with the text enough or really absorb that it is not intended to be read silently. When I taught Romeo & Juliet to 9th graders, we acted it out in class. I had plastic swords for the fights. We blocked scenes, designed costumes, drew scenery and watched film versions.

I agree with this! Reading plays is not ever going to be as good as seeing them performed. I love Shakespeare but I hate reading his work without seeing it. 

I want to recommend Hag Seed by Margaret Atwood too. It is a modern retelling of The Tempest about a former theater director teaching Shakespeare to prison inmates. Its a fun comedy and includes a lot of analysis of the original play.

 

[singsingsing]

1 hour ago, louisa05 said:

For all the Shakespeare haters, he wrote plays. They weren't meant to be read from a page. Too many teachers don't let students interact with the text enough or really absorb that it is not intended to be read silently.

I couldn't get into Shakespeare until I realized this (at about age 16) and then saw it performed. After that, I loved it! I would definitely suggest that anyone who hated Shakespeare in school see at least a couple of the plays if they haven't already. If you do and you still hate it, no worries, it's just not for you. But definitely don't write Shakespeare off based on attempting to read the plays like novels, because that's not how they were meant to be experienced at all.

[NakedKnees]

2 hours ago, singsingsing said:

Catcher in the Rye seems to be the one everyone hates. I read it when I was about 16 and loved it. I really identified with Holden, like a lot of teenagers do, but more so I think because I also just up and quit school. I refuse to re-read it because I'm worried that as an adult I'll hate it, and I want to hold onto my good memories of it instead. 

I agree so much with this! I read Catcher in the Rye at about 14 and again at 17, and loved it at the time. I have no interest in revisiting it either.

 

1 hour ago, louisa05 said:

For all the Shakespeare haters, he wrote plays. They weren't meant to be read from a page. Too many teachers don't let students interact with the text enough or really absorb that it is not intended to be read silently.  *snip*

People tell me this all the time, but it's totally possible to understand that and still not be a fan. In school, we did the classroom costume/set activities with Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, and I still don't care for either. I was in a school production of Macbeth and liked that a bit better. The only Shakespeare plays I've loved are The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I've still never seen The Tempest live. I've probably read about 8 or so other plays and lots of sonnets.

Sorry, but it bothers me a bit that people assume that I don't understand the basic nature of plays just because I'm not in love with everything about Shakespeare ever. It's great that so many young people love his work. It's also totally normal to have tried and not be among them.

[louisa05]

11 minutes ago, NakedKnees said:

 

People tell me this all the time, but it's totally possible to understand that and still not be a fan. In school, we did the classroom costume/set activities with Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, and I still don't care for either. I was in a school production of Macbeth and liked that a bit better. The only Shakespeare plays I've loved are The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I've still never seen The Tempest live. I've probably read about 8 or so other plays and lots of sonnets.

Sorry, but it bothers me a bit that people assume that I don't understand the basic nature of plays just because I'm not in love with everything about Shakespeare ever. It's great that so many young people love his work. It's also totally normal to have tried and not be among them.

And I didn't say you had to like it. But my experience has been that the majority of people who profess to hate Shakespeare have only been exposed to it by reading it off of a page. It is incredibly dry that way and not only loses the sense of action, but also the rhythm of the language.

I had no intention to offend or insult you. I taught Shakespeare for 16 years and the vast majority of my students came away loving it because we never read it like it was a novel. And everyone I've encountered who doesn't like it has only read it like a novel. 

[NakedKnees]

6 minutes ago, louisa05 said:

I had no intention to offend or insult you. I taught Shakespeare for 16 years and the vast majority of my students came away loving it because we never read it like it was a novel. And everyone I've encountered who doesn't like it has only read it like a novel. 

All good, just felt the need to clarify a bit! Teachers' experiences are always important in these discussions

[louisa05]

6 minutes ago, NakedKnees said:

All good, just felt the need to clarify a bit! Teachers' experiences are always important in these discussions

I would just add that Julius Caesar is a boring play and I have no idea why schools ever taught it (well, one reason may have been that it is interdisciplinary as most taught it in 10th grade around here when students also had world history with the real Caesar being taught). On the upside, I've noticed that both lit anthologies and people who design curriculum seem to be abandoning it. I taught it for three years. I had the kids as freshmen when we had a great time doing Romeo & Juliet, and they were always let down by it. I did not blame them. 

I saw it performed once. Still boring. 

With seniors, I did Macbeth and at various times (depending on the academic level of the group) Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Taming of the Shrew. 

@sawasdee Macbeth was always my favorite play to teach. My students always loved it. I had a student teacher once who insisted that the only one modern teens can relate to is Hamlet. I found that the character of Hamlet tended to be a bit too cerebral and focused inward for them. Sure, they don't relate to a guy killing someone to gain power, but we need to stop thinking they have to find their own life in every piece of literature (first and foremost because that is an incredibly narrow way to approach the world). Everyone enjoys a good story and Macbeth tells a good story. 

[front hugs > duggs]

2 hours ago, singsingsing said:

Catcher in the Rye seems to be the one everyone hates. I read it when I was about 16 and loved it. I really identified with Holden, like a lot of teenagers do, but more so I think because I also just up and quit school. I refuse to re-read it because I'm worried that as an adult I'll hate it, and I want to hold onto my good memories of it instead. 

Do not re-read it!!!

I loved Catcher in the Rye when I was around 13 years old. To be honest, I may have loved it because some teen bop magazine told me it was Chad Michael Murray's favorite book (childhood crush swoon!) I read it again after college and it felt like torture to get through it.  Definitely advocating for blissful ignorance here 

 

[freethemall]

If you have ever been bored by Shakespeare, you clearly have not seen it in water ballet form:

http://www.theatrebloom.com/2017/07/sharkspeare-the-water-ballet-at-fluid-movement/

(Couldn't help but mention it, and fun fact...I was in the show)

[ElToro]

4 hours ago, cascarones said:

@singsingsing Bravo on the Austen ladies! I keep wanting there to be a Fanny and I'm sure there's one somewhere in Fundieland.

I don't know much about Kendra yet, but I get a bit of a Catherine Moorland vibe. 

 

Kendra is like Harriet Smith from Emma. Young, unremarkable and easily moulded. Joe makes a great farmer Robert Martin. A perfect match!

[Snarkangel Gabriel]

10 hours ago, victoriasponge said:

 

As for texts I love

• Much Ado About Nothing (the only Shakespeare that will ever make this list)
• The Famous Five series

And texts/authors I hated

• Austen
• Keats

Much Ado - can never get over the way Claudio gets away with basically calling Hero a total slapper in front of her family and friends on her wedding day but then it's all ok!!

Famous Five - I think it has been expunged from the modern versions but I used to read these and think Julian was so masterful. A later re-read at an older age sadly revealed him to be a patronising twazzock and a crashing snob.

Austen - sorry; love her and agree with the earlier Duggar analysis.

Keats - can't bear him; got in trouble at school when we did "to Autumn." There is a line "and full grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourne" and I commented that "full grown lambs" were surely sheep. It was not well received!

[elliha]

Hated Catcher in the Rye like many of you. I first thought it was a bad Swedish translation but when I tried it in English I hated it just as much. I am really not that fond of To Kill a Mockingbird either. I find it too chatty and I don't like Scout. Sorry, I know lots of people love it but no thank you. I can't say it is a bad book, I just don't like it. I started Moby Dick and I actually liked it at first Ishmael and Queequeg's "relationship" and I like the build up to actually leaving to go out at sea but then all those pages and pages on the sea and whaling blablabla. No, can't do it. Maybe in the future but not now.

I am a great Austen fan and I enjoy reading Anne Bronte. I get that Emily and Charlotte wrote books that are interesting and remarkable in their own ways but I would have never read Wuthering Heights had it not been part of a college assignment. I didn't enjoy reading it although it wasn't a bad book. 

Out of Swedish classics I think that Doktor Glas (Doctor Glas in English) is my favorite. A book about a doctor who falls in love with a patient who is not that happy with her husband and he starts thinking about ways of getting rid of the "problem" on her behalf. You don't fully know if he is just evil or mad or a little of both. Very interesting book.

[JemimaPuddle-Duck]

I love books so much. I've found over the last few years as our family has grown and the children have gotten older that I don't have as much time for my own pleasure reading. I read so much for homeschooling and my children all still love read-alouds, which I'm incredibly grateful for; I love that time together. I'm having a hard time remembering the last Novel I read just for me.

In the IB program, our classic lit list was different, so as an adult, I've been trying to read some classics I felt I "missed".To Kill a Mockingbird; The Handmaid's Tale (the book was good, but I have zero interest in watching the show); Catcher in the Rye (blah); Jane Eyre (loved!); Animal Farm; The Scarlett Letter (left me feeling angry and deeply sad); Anna Karenina and Atlas (I made it less than 100 pages in each, I just couldn't get into them); The Chronicles of Narnia; The Lord of the Rings (I had to force myself to finish the first book and I refuse to read the others; may be the only time I think the movie is better than the book); I have tons to go. 

My husband loves Steinbeck and got me going through his books. He reads The Pearl to each of our children when they're still quite young. Of Mice and Men gutted me.

I adore Alice Hofman, but her books started leaving me feel uncomfortable in a way I can't describe. I quit reading them altogether, but I may have to make an exception for the practical magic prequel.

Jennifer Crusie are my favorite Doritos books. I've read Bet Me four times. 

I'm really liking Paula Hawkins. (That's the last novel I read....Into the Water!)

 

@Shadoewolf Possibilities for your son: Gregor the Overlander, Fablehaven, The Mysterious Benedict Society, Narnia.

 

[nastyhobbitses]

Nonfiction recommendation: check out Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter. It was written in 1964, but it's a little scary how relevant it continues to be. And not to mention that it gives historical and philosophical context to a lot of stuff we see and snark about here on FJ - sometimes to the point where I was sitting on the train reading and would say "oh my god it all makes sense now" out loud.

[Exposedknees]

I have recently discovered Sarah Vowell, who writes amazingly entertaining books about American History-

Assassination Vacation,  Partly Cloudy Patriot;  The Wordy Shipmates   are favorites, but I've liked all five that I've read.

I was prompted to check her out from a piece I heard on This American Life on NPR. Super funny and you learn a lot!

[choralcrusader8613]

23 hours ago, louisa05 said:

I would just add that Julius Caesar is a boring play and I have no idea why schools ever taught it (well, one reason may have been that it is interdisciplinary as most taught it in 10th grade around here when students also had world history with the real Caesar being taught). On the upside, I've noticed that both lit anthologies and people who design curriculum seem to be abandoning it. I taught it for three years. I had the kids as freshmen when we had a great time doing Romeo & Juliet, and they were always let down by it. I did not blame them. 

My school did it because we used to do

• 9th: Romeo and Juliet
• 10th: Hamlet
• 11th: American Lit, so no Shakespeare at all
• 12th: Macbeth

But some parents got offended about witches in Macbeth (because "we're good Christians who don't read about witches!" kill me y'all), so we had to move Hamlet to 12th and do Julius Caesar in 10th.

[Palimpsest]

Shakespeare ...

 

[Queen]

I read less now as a 20 something than I did as a child and teen, but I still maintain a love for books! 

Among my favourite authors are Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Bronte, Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Atwood, Mary Shelley, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Tove Jansson (Finnish writer and artist, probably best known internationally for her Moomin charachters although she wrote a lot of short stories for adults as well). The Swedish author Jonas Gardell is another one of my favourites, he recently wrote a trilogy about a group of gay friends in Stockholm during the AIDS-epidemic in the 80s, "Never wipe tears without gloves" (it is translated into English among other languages), that I highly recommend. Very dramatic, moving and sincere. He was in his early 20s when the epidemic hit and he and his now-husband survived, but many of their friends didn't. 

Books I didn't like are War and peace (couldn't get through it and all the names were hard to remember), 50 shades (abusive asshole is glorified) and Robinson Crusoe (because it's so racist! The worst thing is I didn't even recognize all the racism when I read the book as a child. It was completely normal that a white man would rename a native man, make him learn his language, and portray whites as civilicized and non-whites as children. 9 year old (white) me didn't bat an eye, didn't realize exactly how disturbing it was. It shows how prevalent racism still is, I guess.)

[Four is Enough]

Ginger's not pregnant, but who cares? BOOKS! You are my people~~

On 9/19/2017 at 2:01 PM, tabitha2 said:

 Then all I wanted was To read about Ancient Egypt or About the life of a Medieval peasant.  

Are you me? The first book I ever took out of the library was about dinosaurs. After that, Egypt... and then, the Middle Ages!

On 9/20/2017 at 0:02 AM, KeshetParparNesicha said:

Lemony Snicket'." (Hat tip to A Series of Unfortunate Events, which is not a classic, but should be.)

Sorry to disagree, but I absolutely LOATHE Lemony Snicket. However, I spent a great deal of time volunteering in the kids' library at school, and so read many new arrivals, including Dear America..

And to those of you who love fantasy, do you read Katharine Kurtz? Camber? The Adept? She's a friend of mine, and I love the Camber books...

[theotherelise]

Maybe Jinger can get into Shakespeare which leads to getting into Youtube adaptations which leads to true freedom!

This Much Ado About Nothing adaptation on YT is one of my favorite literary adaptations:

 

I also loved literary YT adaptations for Lizzie Bennet Diaries, The Cate Moreland Chronicles, Green Gables Fables, and The Autobiography of Jane Eyre (and I even hate the book!). Not an adaptation but also great for literature lovers is Edgar Allen Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Theater Party.

 

[louisa05]

But some parents got offended about witches in Macbeth (because "we're good Christians who don't read about witches!" kill me y'all), so we had to move Hamlet to 12th and do Julius Caesar in 10th.

Wow. Even Christian school never had anyone protest Shakespeare. They got To Kill a Mockingbird and The Glass Menagerie take n out. And there was an uproar about Narnia books once but never an issue with Shakespeare

I always thought that no school would teach Romeo & Juliet if certain parents knew what some of it actually means though.

[Greendoor]

I took my son and his best friend two years running to Bard on the Beach - Taming of the Shrew and Henry IV.  They were 10 and 11.  They LOVED it.  

Both don't read the plays but still enjoy watching.  They are in their 20's now.

 

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

The Lizzie Bennett Diaries is amazing! I love this YouTube series so much that I even bought the book to it that explains in more more detail what happens when Lizzie's not filming on camera. So good! And did I mention how hot this Darcy is??? En fuego!